Morehouse Moves Up In D2 Polls

The ladies of Virginia Union remained in fourth place in the WBCA Div. II national rankings while the undefeated men of Morehouse should move up in the latest NABC D2 national poll.

After losing its season opener to Edinboro, VUU (19-1) under head coach Ann Marie Gilbert, has now run off 19 straight wins including double-digit CIAA wins last week over Lincoln (68-51) and Elizabeth City State (88-54).

The Lady Panthers are still chasing undefeated No. 1-ranked Ashland (20-0), the team VUU lost to in last year’s Div. II national championship game. Fellow CIAA member Virginia State (15-2) moved up from 25th to 23rd in the poll.

VUU is at Chowan Saturday before traveling to VSU for a Wed., Feb. 7 return date. VUU defeated VSU in their earlier meeting on Jan. 13, 65-56.

As of press time Tuesday, this week’s NABC men’s Div. II national poll had not been released. Lonnie Blow Jr.’s Virginia State (17-2) team was ranked eighth in last week’s poll before suffering a 65-55 loss in CIAA play Saturday to Bowie State. With the loss, the Trojans’ CIAA record dropped to 7-2 while their Northern Division record now sits at 3-1, tied for first with BSU. VSU is likely to fall out of the top ten based on the loss.

Morehouse (18-0), should move higher from its tenth place position in the poll after it remained undefeated with a 83-73 win over Paine Saturday. West Liberty (17-0) out of the Mountain East Conference in the top ranked team in Div. II men’s basketball.

There’s no reason that Clark Atlanta, 19-1 under head coach Darrel Walker, has not moved into the national top 25. The defending SIAC tournament champions were four places out of the top 25 last week and should slide in to the top 25 this week. The Panthers received 10 points in the voting last week.

CAU’s last win was a 77-56 decision over Lane on Monday. They are back in action at Benedict Saturday and at Claflin Monday.